The amazing

So we had this incredible, amazing month with the kids. I can't wait until they're here again, which unfortunately, isn't until May.

I flew down to Arizona to pick up the kids. Spent one night catching up with friends and family. Got to see some of my bestie bestest friends while I was there (Steph and Tina) which was so way super cool. I wish I had more time to spend with them.

We had a fun little party while we were there to celebrate Connor and Leah's bdays a little late. :) WAY super fun.

Money, money, money...Mo-ney! 

PIZZA AND CAKE! 

The kids opened cards, made out like bandits and climbed some trees!

Again, WAY SUPER FUN!

We're in a tree! 

PLANE RIDE! 

The next day we flew back to Utah! This was the first time on the plane for Leah and Xander and the loved every second of it! :)

It was a fun ride. The next three weeks flew by WAY too fast! It was as if time sped up and didn't care how we wanted it.


We had a little Christmas party, SO many people came out to it! It was so great to see all the kids playing together and all the adults playing, too! :D

Kaiden and his energy! 

Party people! 

We shopped for our very first Christmas tree as a couple, and as a family! We found one at the first place we went! It looked perfect and small enough. Then we got it home and POOF! IT WAS HUGE!

Decorating and hilarity ensued.

Oh yeah! Hangin lights!

I don't even know how to caption this one. 

Look at how they hold up the whole tree! lol

We made SO many cookies! SO many!

COOKIES!

And they were delicious! So...amazingly...delicious. :D



We had delicious family meals at our new dining room table.

Working together!  

creme fraiche!!!!

And then...WE WENT SLEDDING! The snow wasn't really cooperating here in town, so we went up to Park City to try to find us a little bit of fun.

We found it...plenty of it. The kids had an amazing time on their first sledding trip! So did mom and Tye!
Before the fun:

All warm and happy and excited! 

 The struggle up the hill and the eating of snow!

Tye taking his turn!

 The tiny one and his tongue out the whole time and giving up on sledding to make a snow angel!

Aren't we beautiful?

 And the delicious food at Red Banjo after the fun!

And finally, on the drive home....exhaustion. :) 

Finally, after days of shopping and working and wrapping and general sneakiness, it was Christmas! 

He's laughing because I have a matching pair. ;) 

The kids opened their PJ's...decorated cookies for Santa...

CHEESE! 

And it was off to bed until morning!


We had the most amazing Christmas...I think EVERYONE got something they wanted and the day was just plain perfect!

My beautiful statue from Tye

My teddy bear jammies! 

Tye's teddy bear jammies

The smile...it's perfect! 

And then there was this...

Happy children...makes my heart happy! 

Finally! I can take over the world! 

Hmm...what could it be!?!

After a week of work, and a snowstorm on the night we were supposed to leave, we were off to a late start the next morning. The car just kept slipping and sliding all over the place.

The snow was blowing straight across the road...

The roads were just really bad

We finally had to pull over and take the car to a shop in a tiny town because even after the roads got better, we couldn't keep from sliding all over them...going 20mph. 4 new tires later, and we were on our way! Again! Our normally 11-12 hour drive turned into 18 hours on the road. We were supposed to be able to see Mom and Dad Sevy, but since we didn't even get to the kids house until 10:30 PM, that just didn't happen. :( We dropped the kids off with as few tears as possible and then continued on to Tucson to ring in the New Year!

 Spent the night with Mom and Dad Zaharia, slept in as late as humanly possible and were on our way back to Utah. Stopped off to see a couple of friends on the road...stopped by to visit Mom and Dad Redmond and brother Alex, and made out way back to our wonderful home.

It was a beautiful month.

I am now two weeks into my schooling to become a massage therapist. Most of you know that this is my third and final attempt at school. This is the time. This is the year. Many big plans in store for this and next year.

Our lives are simply amazing. We have the most beautiful love in our home, and surrounding us with friends and family. I am so grateful for everything in my life.

The countdown

As I count down the days until the kids are here with us again, I have some updates to share.

We've had a couple of snow storms, but as of today, everything has melted. I'm really, really hoping that there is another storm before the kids arrive so they can play in the snow. Weather.com *says* that there will be, but I dunno.

This Friday I will be flying down to get the kids while Tye finishes getting the house ready for their arrival. We have some super plans of sledding, movies and shopping while they are here, and of course, this is Tye's first Christmas with them, and my first in 3 years. It certainly does change the holiday spirit when the kids are around.

Hopefully there will be more impressive icicles that we can play with as well.

Everything is pretty much set for me to start school, and Tye took a tour of the school he would like to attend the other day. Both schools seem like perfect environments for each of us.




We got Emo a cool new house to live in.

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving with some very good friends. 

Only 3 more days until the kids arrive. Then there will be many, many more blogs ;) I'm sure. 

Catch up time

So the time has come and gone again. It's been two months since I've updated this.

Life has been amazing.

We moved in to our new home









We celebrated Halloween

And we have enjoyed the fall (with a snow storm thrown in)

All in all, it's just been a busy couple of months. Tye's parents visited for a few days and that was just wonderful. Now we are anxiously awaiting the kids arrival on Dec 11. :)

I will fly out on Dec 10 to pick them up and they will be in town for 3 weeks to enjoy Christmas with us!

Next week is Thanksgiving. We both have to work, but we will be having a small dinner to ourselves the following day.

I go back to school on January 3. Tye will go back once I have completed mine. There is so much to look forward to over the next year.

This is a very short blog, but I guarantee that after the holidays, there will be many, many updates.

The honeymoon, the guinea pig and the house

We went on our honeymoon. I'm not sure why I haven't written about it yet, but it was quite lovely. We went to a bed and breakfast in Midway, UT called Johnson Mill B&B. We stayed in the honeymoon suite. It was AMAZING.

They had a little pond with a canoe that we took out that night. 

We went to dinner at a local restaurant and then spent the evening together in our beautiful suite. 

T

The next morning we had breakfast brought to our room and we had mimosas, and I just really didn't want to leave...

We then moved on to Park City where we spent time walking up and down the "downtown" area there, which just so happened to have a bike race going on at the time. We had some food and again, just enjoyed each other's company. 

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A couple of weeks later, we decided to get ourselves a pet. So we drove 2 1/2 hours to pick up our new friend Emo. He is the cutest, most emo guinea pig that has ever existed:

 

He loves to eat carrots. They're like Guinea Pig crack. 

And he loves hanging out with his daddy.

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And finally, another praying mantis story. We've been house hunting for a while now. Gotta get out of this studio and have room for the kids. There's a house across the street from our apartments that just under a year ago was trashed by the tenants. We watched as the house was redone and were just hoping that they would rent it out because it was so cute and so perfect for us. Well, the owners decided to put it on the market because they didn't want to have to deal with bad tenants again. That's understandable. So we've watched for almost a year as no one bought the house. I kept saying to Tye: "No one's going to buy it, and they're going to rent it to use just about when our lease is up." Well, I kept saying it and kept saying it. Meanwhile, every day, I'm checking the classifieds for houses in our neighborhood. We had been going to look at them and trying to find that perfect one. One day I found it. There was the house. They had finally put it up for rent! So, of course, we called them and they told us how to get in to take a look. We went over and immediately started making plans on how we would make it our own home. As we were walking around outside, on the door leading to the driveway, there was this: 

 A giant praying mantis. If you've read my blogs, since Tye and I met, the praying mantis has shown up immediately preceding or following a very important step in our lives. It was a sign! Well, 2 weeks later after waiting and waiting and waiting, the house is ours and we should be able to start moving in very soon! So excited to have a yard and a house with our own washer and dryer and dishwasher. :) 

Just a couple more months until the kids come out! We can't wait to see them.